Hey again, I know I'm nobody, but could use some helpful advice. ..please?
I just replaced ALL the shift bushings in my tailshifter, 70'.
The slop in the shifter is WORSE, and it grinds going into 5th and pops out. No amount of adjustment has changed it. I spent 5 hours on it today and cannot get the shift pattern even close to what it previously was. I marked the front/middle shift rods before disassembly and the marks seem arbitrary (irrelevant to where it needs to be lined up NOW).
Also- under my shift plate at the front is a small aluminum block, the two 5mm allen bolts go thru it to the shift-bushing bracket- seemingly to space the bracket/bushing UNDER the tunnel..
Its not in any parts diagram- is it added?
Can anyone help me at all, just a little??
TIA
Robert O

Do you have a pic of this alumnum block. I don't recall any aluminum being used on the shifter plate.

i know -exactly- what that little aluminum block is ! (i have on ehere just like it.)

you are, or your car has been, at one point, the proud owner of a very early 'short shift' kit ! (probably made by 'Target' Engineering...)

it's probably hard to see without a comparison photograph, but if you have a look at your shifter ball, i suspect you'll find the distance from the upper pivot surface to the lower ball that engages the shift cup (you did replace that too - right?) is about 3/4" longer - the machined shank between the two is made longer.

i had one of those original, unused short-shift kits but i sent the ball off to James Adams (JWest/RennShift). maybe he can post a comparison photograph.

anyway - the aluminum block was supposed to be used to re-align the front tunnel bushing with the lowered actuator ball. i test-tried it in my installation and decided it was too totally hokey, and put too much stress on the shift rod and bushings. what i wound up doing was spacing the base of the shifter plate _up_ to compensate, raising everything to align the lower ball with the correct shift rod placement. you obviously have a car where a PO followed the instructions :-) ...

(the method of creating a shortened shift-lever throw was a common VW practice, but it was easier in the T-I and T-III shifters 'cause you could replace the upper pivot with a hemispherical spacer - they had no antirotation pin to deal with...)

so - if you -do- have one of those extended shifter balls, you need to do -something- to account for the geometry difference - either keep the spacer or pitch it and raise the shifter plate. if the shift lever has been replaced with a stocker, pitch the spacer.

if you happened to replace the shift lever as part of your work, you may just be interpreting the increased shift lever travel as slop. (i find a very short shift travel very nice, and was very glad to have sprung for JWest's RennShift with the max reduction...)

i donno 'bout /4's - on the /6, there is a bushing at the very back (usually covered in guck) that is fairly easy to replace after you remove the roll pin holding the rear shift actuator thingie in place.

if it won't positively engage 5th (and probably you have problems to a lesser degree with 1 and 3 too) the rod will need to be a little shorter.

shifter adjustments are tedious and frustrating, but if you think about what's going on, pretty straightforward. good luck, report back with your progress ...

here's a picture from the original instruction sheet; see if this isn't what you've got ...

Might be a good idea to check the wear on the rear shift rod where it engages to the selector on the tranny. When I had the tailshifter in my car, i took the rear shift rod out and got some weld material added and grinded back to shape. This helped alot and tightened everything up.

HTH

Marc-André

Hey M-A,

I remember seeing a write-up on this procedure from *someone*. Rennlist I think. Was that you?

Yep-
thats the bugger. I need to examine the shifter itself to see if its stock or been replaced, but the aluminum block is there.
And yes, I replaced the ball socket underneath, AND replaced the rear most bushing AND brought the shift rod where it passes thru it back to tolerance by adding material.
There's NO slop in the rods, the only play left in the system is at the tranny nosecone- and even there its not too bad, about what I would expect.
I didi try to install teh shifter w/o teh aluminum block and everythign was tight, but I didn't have enough range to select all the gears for some reason. ..so I may try that again and SPACE the shifter "UP" with some washers temporarily?
Interesting, .. ..
Thanks for the help, I don't feel quite as lost now. .
Robert O

that's all i did, it worked fine, i left it alone.

Nice avitar Mike! You too Marc-Andre!

PK

That's the old 914 Club sticker from the back window of my 914/6. It's still on the glass. I'm hoping to save it.